Former soldier pleads guilty in high-profile military sexual assault case

ACanadianex-soldier at the centre of a high-profile caseof sexual assault in the military has pleaded guilty.

Former warrant officer Andr Gagnon was charged with assaulting former master corporal Stphanie Raymond after a party in 2011 at an armoury near Quebec City.

He will be sentenced July 14.

Gagnonoriginally wastried by court martial and acquitted, but the case was appealed all the way up to the Supreme Court of Canada.

A new trial was ordered.Gagnon signalled earlier this month that he would change his plea to guilty to avoid more time in court.

Raymond told herstory of being assaulted by Gagnon and then hounded out of the military for reporting it toMaclean's magazine in 2013.

That cover storyhelped spark an independent investigation and, eventually, Operation Honour, the official effort to stamp out sexual misconduct in the military.

In an interview with CBC News earlier this month, Raymond said she was relieved that the long legal ordeal would soon be over and that she would not have to testify in court again.

"I can continue my life now without this,"she said in advance of today's court appearance by her attacker."It will save me a lot of stress.This will be an ending page that will be turned."

Gagnon's guilty pleain a Quebec City court today comes at a time of extraordinary crisis in the military.

The acting chief of the defence staff has formally ended Operation Honour. Critics have said the operation is nowthoroughly discredited after the country's two most senior military officers, Admiral Art McDonald and Gen. Jonathan Vance, were separately accused of sexual misconduct.

Lt.-Gen. Wayne Eyre said the military intends to learn what it can from the institutional campaign, keep what worked and discard what didnot.

Gagnon's court martial was overseen by a five-man panel andby an officerwho later became the chief military judge:Col. Mario Dutil.

In 2018, Dutilwas charged withwillfully making a false statement in a document signed by him, fraud, committing an act of a fraudulent nature and conduct to the prejudice of good order and discipline charges that were later dropped.

The lawyers defending Gagnonargued during his 2014 court martial thatthe sex was consensual. Raymond's lawyers argued Gagnon used his superior rankto coerce her into sexual acts.

The question of power imbalancesis becoming a focus of themilitary's efforts to combat sexual misconduct.

"One of the things we have to get better at understanding is power dynamics," Eyre said in testimony before the House of Commons committee on the status of women on Tuesday. "We have to get much better at understanding human power dynamics, especially within a rigid military hierarchy."

With power comes responsibility, he said, and drawing the linebetween use and abuse will be key to restoring confidence in the military as an institution.

Raymond struggled to be heard and believed.Eyre toldthe committee that, going forward, the voices of victimsmust beheard.

"We have to ensure that victims are supported, supported in coming out and telling their stories and bringing up allegations in whatever forum that takes," he said.